DEXTER DEFENDS FUNDING CUTS

Premier Darrell Dexter is defending the government's plan to cut education funding.

The province is proposing a 5 percent cuts in the budget for school boards province-wide, that's 196-million dollars.

Dexter says budget cuts are necessary in difficult economic times but HIS government is taking a better approach.

"Unlike governments in the past that have simply come forward and dictated across the board reductions, we took a different view, we said that the leadership on the issue of financial stability, the leadership on the issues on how we get back to balance should belong to the people in control of the budgets," says Dexter.

Chairman of the South Shore Regional School Board says the province is in too big a rush to balance the budget.

Elliott Payzant says a hasty attempt to pull the province out the red will threaten student education.

No details of the budget cuts have been finalized.